The Yegiora Files

Premdas presented the three categories of foreign policy options in his article published in 1976 by the Australian Journal of International Affairs. The three categories aid us to develop our understanding of PNG's first foreign policy. In other words, it is a useful framework or typology for analysis extracted from the work of Holsti. The three categories of foreign policy options open to a state are: Isolationism Non-alignment Diplomatic coalitions and military alliances According to Premdas (1976, p. 263) a state that choose a particular foreign policy strategy does so because if feels that its national interest will be served by this orientation. National interest is categorized into three categories: Security interest Economic interest Ideological interest PNG has the option of selecting the isolationism option at independence but did not. Like all other newly independent countries, PNG opted for a non-alignment foreign policy based on the doctrine of unive...

Gyngell and Wesley (2003) talked about the two worlds of foreign policy. Practitioners have a different view of foreign policy in comparison to academics. I agree with their distinction and will expand on some of the points they made in their book. Some academics think that foreign policy is a structured detailed plan outlining the interaction between two states. Mitna (2018) challenged this perception with the statement that foreign policy does not need to be a predetermined course of action or strategy. It can be an impromptu statement or expression of a particular view, reflecting the reactive nature of foreign policy. Decision-makers decide what foreign policy is by choosing what they do. This is evident in the case of Marape and his choice to focus on Southeast Asia. After his election as the Prime Minister, he made this impromptu statement about working with Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. He said he wanted to focus more on trade and economics. Furthermore, Mitna ...

Recently China has increased its influence in the Pacific region. The increase can be measured in the volume of soft power resources deployed and employed by China. But does this Western notion give one a good understanding of what China is doing in the region and in PNG? Soft power is the opposite of hard power in terms of resources. In the words of Joseph Nye, soft co-optive power is just as important as hard command power. It plays the same role by influencing State B to want what State A wants, but in a non-coercive manner. There are 6 resources according to Nye and Joshua Kurlanzick: culture political values  foreign policy investment aid formal diplomacy The employment of the Belt and Road Initiative by China as a soft power resource is timely for a nation like PNG. Peter O'Neill was one of the first leaders in the Pacific region to sign up to the Initiative. He was attracted by the fact that China had the capability to help PNG develop its infrastructur...

Technology has changed the process of learning and teaching in the higher education sector. We are using different learning management systems and software to share and create content. As such, educators are generally expected to be tech savvy and learners more knowledgeable. Not all educators are excited about the change. Digital immigrants struggle to keep up with the speed at which the process of learning and teaching is changing. Many were born before the widespread adoption of digital technology, or grew up not using digital technology at an early age.   On the other hand, digital natives easily meet the general expectation because they grew up using digital technology at an early age. For them, the transition is less complex compared to digital immigrants. They know exactly what to do and how to do it.  To avoid becoming obsolete, digital immigrants in the higher education sector will need to work extra hard to narrow the gap between them and the digit...

Liberal internationalism is defined by Griffiths, O'Callaghan and Roach (2008, p.190) as a project to transform international relations so that they conform to models of peace, freedom, and prosperity allegedly enjoyed within constitutional liberal democracies. The same scholars go further by dividing liberalism into three distinct groups. They say these are the three ways to implement the project. The way they present liberal internationalism as a project makes their work interesting. Three distinct groups Firstly, commercial liberalism is about free trade between states. States bilaterally or multilaterally via a platform like APEC pursue the goal of trade liberalization. Griffiths, O'Callagahan and Roach (ibid.) argued that economic interdependence would decrease the likelihood of going to war. Republican liberalism is about democratic peace. The scholars argued that the spread of democracy among states so that governments will be accountable to their citizens makes it di...

Distinguishing the theory of realism from liberalism will help one to understand how international law is connected to international relations. Both theories give two different explanations of how state actors behave. One is inclusive of non-state actors while the other is not. Elman (2009) states that the realist tradition was a response to the dominant liberal tradition of international politics. Classical realists believe that because human beings are egoistic, we desire for more power. The more power we have, then we have a better opportunity of acquiring more resources which are scarce. Also, we can influence what happens around us if we possess a measurable amount of power. A state's interest could be to have control over a certain geographical territory in the ocean which is important for international trade and has mineral resources. To acquire this territory, the state must acquire a measurable amount of power in order to wrestle with other surrounding...